Maintaining a Single Source of Truth
Online Extra for September 2003,‘Maintaining a Single Source of Truth
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Maintaining a Single Source of Truth
Avoiding erosion of process asset information can save millions by upgrading instead of recreating data, augmenting communications, and knowing what you need when it matters most.
Dave Harrold Control Engineering
How much does it cost to make an unscheduled plant shutdown, install a backup spare pump, restart the plant, and then learn the backup pump you just installed has the wrong impeller for the current application?For a refinery that one incident could easily cost $335,000.
“No way,” you say.
So let’s add it up.
$90,000 to expedite and install the correct impeller;
Four days of lost production (22,500 barrels per day x $2.50 per barrel x 4 days); and
$20,000 to buy, install, warehouse, and dispose of the incorrect impeller
That’s $335,000 for a single incident.
The root cause of this “real” incident was traced to an outdated equipment datasheet.Several years had elapsed since the plant was built, and process materials, fluid properties, and pump impeller sizes had changed–in reality, but not on paper. The facility was no longer “as built.” Reliable asset information had eroded away.
Manage information
According to ARC Advisory Group (www.arcweb.com), instrumentation accounts for as much as 10% of a process manufacturing plants capital expenditure and 20% of its operating expenditure.
When combined with competitive pressures; efficiency and flexibility demands; and stricter safety, health, and environmental regulations; one word describes why companies must continuously seek ways to reduce operating expenditures–survival.
A key component of controlling costs throughout a plant’s life can be achieved by maintaining engineering and design information as a single source of truth that accurately represents the plant’s “current” as-built status. (See “Datasheet management’s financial benefits” diagram.)
For example, The Netherlands-based specialty chemicals producer DSM has recognized savings of 10% to 20% as a result of using Intergraph PPO’s (Process, Power, and Offshore) Intools.
“By maintaining the sole, accurate, and consistent instrumentation database within Intools, we spend less time searching to ensure we are working with the correct information. This has resulted in fewer startup delays related to instrumentation. We also have a strong belief that manag-ing our information leads to less spurious trips during maintenance activities,” said Lion Demarteau, competence manager of process control engineering at DSM TechnoPartners.
Depending on throughput, asset utilization, and product margins, DSM reports that millions of dollars could be saved over the plant’s lifetime through the accumulated operational savings of managing instrumentation information.
Meeting the challenge
Most people agree that significant benefits can be gained by managing information. However, truly beneficial information is rarely derived from a single application source. The challenge is to efficiently and accurately populate one authoring application’s database with data created using a different authoring application.
Commencing in 1999, Aspen Technology, Dow Chemical’s design engineering department, and Intergraph PPO initiated a project to develop a better, less-expensive way to manage information, workflow, and shared application data. This collaboration has resulted in The Engineering Framework (TEF) data-centric architecture. (See “Sharing engineering information” diagram.)
Developed using XML (eXtensible Markup Language) schemas, TEF permits authoring applications, such as Aspen’s Zyqad front-end engineering software, to function as a stand-alone engi-neering tool, yet share common data with Intergraph’s Smart Plant P&ID and Intool applications. (See “Defining the integration opportunity” diagram.)
Located in 19 sites around the world, Dow Chemical’s design and construction group com-pleted more than $1 billion in 2002 capital projects using a standardized work process know as Global Project Methodology (GPM).
Projecting that the TEF architecture with GPM would contribute to reductions in the total in-stalled costs of a plant by 3.5%,
Dow engineers launched the GPM Automation Improvement Project (GAIP).
Dow’s vision for GAIP is to:
Improve engineering performance on all projects by using modern, more intelligent process and design engineering authoring tools;
Integrate the exchange of shared data between authoring tools and improve communication across work processes;
Enable reuse of engineering information in the detailed design and operation of subsequent projects; and
Reduce information technology costs.
According to Dave Jasper, Dow Chemical’s GAIP project manager, “Dow agreed to participate in this project with AspenTech and Intergraph PPO with the vision of creating a de-facto industry standard that will hopefully become the means for EPC [Engineering Procurement and Construction] and owner-operator companies to execute projects. This has not been a short or easy journey, but we are just completing the final major phase of a four-phase development process. The first three phases consisted of developing, testing, and refining the applications. In this final phase we are testing the GAIP applications to replicate actual engineering on a previous pro-ject.”
Like many others in the industry, Dow Chemical applies the methodology of Six Sigma throughout the company and thus requires that tangible benefits be quantified and documented. To this end Dow’s GAIP toolset is expected to extend current tangible benefits beyond design and construction to include operations and maintenance activities, such as:
Process troubleshooting by comparing design data with current operating conditions;
Turn-around planning; and
Regulatory compliance.
Global workplace security When examining a global, collaborative engineering workplace, security issues are one of the first “red flags” raised.Beyond addressing the organization of people, infrastructure, culture, and work processes, there are technical issues related to securely passing sensitive data around the globe.
Most engineering and design authoring application software packages provide some amount of user-customizable security features. However, functionality of some software seems to assume the packages will be used in a single-site environment. This is seldom a good assumption and may even lead to unexpected problems when it comes time to pass engineering and design infor-mation around the globe.
Generally, the two types of engineering data needing to be transferred are: drawings, such as P&IDs; and the reference and key internal data, such as fluid properties, instrument tags, etc.
From a security viewpoint, the desirable mode of operation would be to send only changes to a master system at selected times–a suitable solution for drawings. Unfortunately a project’s success relies on the timely availability of reference data.
However, live-link reference data updates introduce additional security issues.
Some companies, such as Aspen Technology and Intergraph, incorporate a tiered approach and involve users in how best to address security.
At the base of the tier, and as an alternative to the widely used, but less secure FTP (File Transfer Protocol), is the use of a more robust Oracle protocol operating over standard TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) or TCP/IP w/SSL (Secure Socket Layer).
Moving up a level, users can use standard network solutions, such as DMZ (Demilitarized Zones) and VPNs (Virtual Private Networks).
At the highest level (and highest costs), additional security modules are available from Oracle that inspect and validate each packet of information.
For many companies, global, collaborative engineering and design is rapidly becoming a way of life. With sensitive data flying all around the globe, each participating party must address new risk assessment scenarios and solutions.
Enforcing good practices
Good engineering practices can include obvious things, such as not specifying use of a carbon steel valve in an acid line. However, one of the challenges facing a company’s adoption and use of good practices is enforcement, which gets more difficult with increased size and global reach.
The most effective means of enforcing a consistent application of good practices is to use rule-based application authoring tools, such as those built on Intergraph’s SmartPlant architecture.
The foundation of the SmartPlant architecture is a data-centric information management solution designed to manage availability, integrity, and accuracy of all plant engineering information from conception through decommissioning.
One of the SmartPlant-enabled tools is Intools, an instrumentation design and engineering authoring application software. Intools includes instrumentation-related modules for calculations, calibration, construction, maintenance, hook-ups, instrument indexes, instrument specifications, loop drawings, process data, and wiring. Much of the Intools database content is also important when programming (configuring) a control system and having the ability to eliminate or mini-mize data reentry can pay big dividends over a system’s life.
In the evolution of its manufacturing practices, Dow Chemical developed a leading-edge process control system known as the MOD 5 (See Control Engineering, Sept. ’02, p.24, “One controller, many uses.”). A major justification for Dow to develop, support, and use the MOD 5 system was the ability to securely and consistently enforce Dow’s good practices.
All MOD 5 software programs are viewable by anyone, but the software compiler ensures only authorized persons perform changes. Once the compiler is satisfied with authentication, it evaluates the software structure against approved Dow practices. Only after the compiler is satisfied the person and software structure is correct will the software actually compile. A final check prevents loading new/modified software into an “online” controller.
It was the combination of MOD’s work practice enforcement and its robust security that resulted in the MOD 5 achieving TÜV certification.
Until recently, Dow Chemical continued to use its own MOD 5 control system in lieu of using commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) control systems. However, as common systems and the functionality of COTS control systems advanced, Dow made a decision to work with ABB.
In May 2001, Dow’s Process Automation (DPA) group signed a 10-year agreement with ABB covering products, services, and knowledge transfer to develop a commercial product incorporating key MOD 5 functionality including a combined basic process control and programmable elec-tronic safety system.
According to Jasper, Dow’s GAIP toolset doesn’t yet include capabilities to automatically populate a COTS control system database, such as ABB’s IndustrialIT system. However, using ABB’s Aspect Exchange Service, IndustrialIT does support data integration with Intools, also a part of Dow’s GAIP toolset. Additionally, continued conversations between suppliers and Dow
Technology groups, including those working with ABB, will help ensure that Dow’s engineering and process control applications will integrate into a unified architecture.
Anytime a process facility can maintain a single, up-to-date source of information, that facility gains competitive advantages and moves steadily closer to operational excellence. Dow Chemical is well on its way. How long should your plant wait before it embarks on establishing a single version of truth?
For more suppliers, go to www.controleng.com/buyersguide; for more information, enter the following numbers online at www.controleng.com/freeinfo
ABB Aspen Technology DSM TechnoPartners Dow Chemical Intergraph PPO
Create security with a computer network demilitarized zones
The term, demilitarized zone (DMZ), comes from the geographic buffer zone established between North and South Korea following the 1950’s UN police action.
In computer networks, a DMZ is a computer host or small network inserted as a “neutral zone” between a company’s private network and the outside public network. Its purpose is to prevent outsiders from gaining access to computers that host sensitive data.
DMZs are an optional, more secure approach than a firewall and can effectively function as a proxy server.In a typical small company DMZ configuration, a separate computer (host) receives requests from users on the company’s private network for access to Web sites located on the public network. DMZ host software is designed to initiate requests and forward packets from the private to the public network. It is unable to process requests from the other direction. (Firewall programs in a gateway server can, with proper authorization, allow two-way access.)
Often, the DMZ host computer may also host the com-pany’s Web pages in a way that allows them to be served to re-quests from the public network. However, the DMZ software prevents access to other company data.In the event an outsider penetrates the DMZ host’s security, Web pages might become corrupted, however all other com-pany information remains secure.
This DMZ description is based on information at www.searchwebservices.com
Physical plant information checklist Electronic execution of plant information solutions for operational sites should include:
Single source of up-to-date engineering information;
Accurate representations of the physical plant’s asset structure or configuration;
Plant engineering data and documents, including instrumentation information, managed in context with the plant’s structure;
Controlled security access via intranet and/or Internet connections;
Revision control of plant configuration, assets, and documentation;
Traceability and audit history of engineering informa-tion changes;
Definition and audits of the work processes used in the revision, review, and release of design basis documents; and
Definition and audits of work processes used to evaluate, approve, and execute engineering changes.
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